Wake up, everybody! Good morning! We’re back in Jersey — back to our miserable lives. I used that line with our driver to the airport yesterday (“Back to our miserable lives”), and he loved it — I’m sure he’ll share it — he was a little gabby, in a nice way.
But we had to get up early today — had to drive Lianna to school (our Monday job), and now I have exams to grade. You too, Mr. Sun — time to get up! Remember this one?
Well, you finally made it, Buddy — 65A in yesterday’s puzzle: “Character asked to ‘shine down,’ in a children’s song.” MR SUN!
I was lamenting that our itinerary had a major flaw in it — it got us home in time for me to watch the Jets get slaughtered by the Eagles yesterday. But in the “battle of the greens” the Jets won 20-14, coming from behind on the strength of their defense and field goal kicker. How surprising a win was it? Well, the Eags were 5-0 coming into the game and were the NFC champs last year, and the Jets were, well, they were the Jets. Let’s look at it another way — in the entire history of the Jets franchise (about 60 years) they had never beaten the Eagles. Never as in “never.” They were 0-12. That tied the longest losing streak for any team against another team in the history of the NFL.
So, — nice going, guys. Good win — permission to crow granted.
The theme of today’s puzzle was MOVIE BUFFS, a pun meaning movie stars who are “buff,” i.e., all muscled up. The theme answers were CHANNING TATUM, JASON MOMOA, MR T, and DWAYNE JOHNSON. Here’s JM. Yeah, I can see how he made the cut.
Even from under my rock I had heard of all of them except Momoa, although, admittedly, I thought Channing Tatum was a woman. Must’ve been thinking of Tatum O’Neal. She can play Liz Cheney when the time comes, no?
Not even Superman could save her. Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane on the Superman TV series for one season, passed away at her retirement home in California last Wednesday at the age of 96. Cause of death was falling off a ladder. [No it wasn’t.] Gotta find those rungs, Lo Lo! We can certainly see how the S-man fell for her. Who wouldn’t?
The Superman TV show first aired in 1952, and, more than 40 years later, in 1994, Phyllis played Lois Lane’s mother in an episode of “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” She was tickled to do so and her only request was that they try to make her look like Lois’s mom and not her grandma.
She only played Lois for a year. The producer wanted her back but she left for other roles. She was a guest star on “Gunsmoke,” “Rawhide” and “Perry Mason,” as well as “Leave It to Beaver,” which was directed by Norman Tokar, her husband at the time. She was born Gypsie Ann Stell. Her son passed away in 2011; she is survived by two daughters and a granddaughter, all of whom are pretty damn proud that their mom and grandma was once Superman’s heartthrob.
In 1953, while she was still portraying Lois Lane, Ms. Coates told The LA Times that her 4-year-old daughter questioned why Superman’s disguise fooled people: it was just a pair of glasses, a hat and a suit over his Superman outfit. “She just can’t understand why I can’t see through Superman’s disguise in the telecasts. She thinks I’m quite stupid about the whole thing.”
Rest in peace, Lois.
The poet Louise Glück died last Friday at her home in Cambridge MA at the age of 80 from cancer. She was pretty much awarded every honor that exists, including the Nobel Prize in 2020. She was born in NYC and grew up on Long Island. She was Jewish, a fact omitted from her NYT obit. Her father, Daniel, was a businessman and a frustrated poet who, among other things, helped invent the X-Acto knife, an essential tool for dollhouse enthusiasts. Her mother, Beatrice, was a homemaker. (BTW, Glück is pronounced glick.)
Here is one of the comments posted on her NYT obit.
When I was a creative writing grad student in Boston in 1996-97 I had the good fortune of driving Ms. Glück to various appointments. She couldn’t drive then. I remember being so nervous the first time I picked her up that I nearly ran a man over at a crosswalk. What a look I got from him. I was like, “Dude, I’ve got Louise Glück in here, okay? I’m not well. Move along, please.” I’m not sure if Louise ever fully relaxed after that but the rides continued and her discussions about writers and writing were very generous and informative. To be present at her readings was intense and transformative. She was powerful. What a privilege.
To her credit, Glück had very little patience for Phil’s inane attempts to get her to smile. Gotta know when to fold ’em, Philly. Glad you caught that old typewriter, though. Apparently, she wrote all of her poems by elbow.
Oy, that’s quite enough nonsense for today. Thanks for popping by. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 